The present invention relates generally to the field of material handling, and in particular to a new and useful apparatus and method of printing personalized information on an article such as a calendar or pen, and stuffing that article into an envelope that is addressed to that person, on a mass production basis.
The most pertinent patents to the present invention that were found are:
U.S. Pat. No.Inventor(s)3,485,208Hemming3,503,488Stone3,902,712Dorer4,079,576Morrison, et al.4,158,835Miura, et al.4,582,312Abrams, et al.4,733,856Gunther, Jr.4,797,832Axelrod, et al.4,865,304VanderSyde, et al.4,955,185Haas, et al.5,034,985Keough5,072,922Paulson5,107,656Katz, et al.5,125,124Orsinger, et al.5,157,243Ramsey5,179,522Scribe5,317,654Perry, et al.5,388,388Belec, et al.5,445,367Long5,519,624Hidding5,569,003Goldman, et al.5,618,375Suzuki, et al.5,715,653Weinmann, et al.5,898,153Lagan, et al.5,954,323Emigh, et al.6,168,008Sting, et al.6,725,126Doery6,974,034Smith, et al.7,000,364Middelberg, et al.7,051,496Heilman.
The most pertinent patent application found is U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2006/0162584 to Iwamoto, et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,503,488 to Stone and U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,208 to Hemming, et al. disclose a rotating fluted drum for transporting rod-like articles for processing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,576 to Morrison, et al. discloses an insert track which comprises continuously-moving constant speed conveyor chains with spaced sets of pusher pins for carrying inserts to the stuffing station. The envelope stopped at the stuffing station is held open with sucker feet and boxing fingers, and the pusher arms is used to drive the insert into the open envelope. This patent also discloses that the stuffed envelope is processed and deposited on an envelope stacking rack.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,158,835 to Miura, et al. generally discloses a device for detecting postal information located inside a window area of an envelope.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,312 to Abrams, et al. generally discloses an apparatus adapted to obtain a signal from information bearing marks on a first document, transmit the signal to a printer to print an image such as a bar code on a second document, and insert the first and second documents into an envelope.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,865,304 to VanderSyde, et al. discloses directing a jet of air under and against the flap of an envelope to deflect the flap to an opened position and placing a flap retaining bar before the envelope insertion station to maintain the flap in the opened position.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,725,126 to Doery generally discloses an apparatus for matching mailing envelopes and inserts which comprises a document feeder for feeding a document to a scanner, which reads the document to obtain information and transmits the information to a controller, and a printer for printing information obtained from the controller onto the envelope.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,519,624 to Hidding generally discloses a system which scans the barcode printed on a main document, processes the signal from the scanner, and transmits the appropriate printing instructions to the printer to print the desired enclosure documents.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,654 to Perry, et al. generally discloses an apparatus for reading the name and address of the recipient shown on a primary document and imprinting the envelope with the information obtained from the primary document.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,618,375 to Suzuki, et al. discloses an envelope hopper assembly which pulls the envelope one by one from the bottom of the stack and deposits the envelope on the gripper of the envelope transport chain.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,922 to Paulson discloses an envelope hopper assembly which comprises a reciprocating rotatable vacuum drum with vacuum outlet openings and configured to remove one envelope at a time from the bottom of the envelope hopper.